A VIEW from the EDGE DONCASTER CONVERSATION CLUB NEWSLETTER Issue 58

A VIEW FROM THE EDGE DONCASTER CONVERSATION CLUB NEWSLETTER Issue 58 A view from the edge Doncaster Conversation Club Newsletter 05 September 2019 STANDING ALONGSIDE REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS IN DONCASTER IN THIS ISSUE Paying attention By Paul FitzPatrick migration policy that is (at least I was reflecting on the challenges of the current strategy and a new somewhat) humane, rational, and continuing to pay attention to the direction. The current strategy has serves Europe’s economic interests. situation of people seeking asylum. been the prevention of migration The necessary steps which this This includes the ways in which the into Europe. This has produced an requires are outlined at issues are framed, at a time when endless recycling of fantastical www.ecre.org the BBC (never mind the Daily Mail) solutions to Europe’s ‘migration talks about a ‘migrant crisis in the problem’: external processing, English Channel’ but provides little detention in neighbouring countries, information or insight into the 54 return everybody, create an boats and 2000 people in distress in environment so hostile that no-one the Mediterranean, which contacted will want to come (because ‘pull Alarm Phone in the eight weeks to 7 factors’ are drawing them to Europe, July. People continue to arrive in even though there is no evidence Re-visiting Moria camp Page 2 Greece, Italy, Spain and Malta; and they exist). This approach both conditions in Lesvos, for example, requires and feeds the fear that in have become so bad that 1400 turn fuels the far-right populists, people have been moved on to small rather than making them go away as camp near the border with Northern some claim. Macedonia. The alternative, the second road, Then I read the latest bulletin from leads to support for a functioning ECRE. This surely deserves a wide asylum system in Europe, and Barnby Dun paddle readership. The EU, it suggests, faces deploying resources to make it work, a choice between a continuation of and to putting in place an overall Page 5 A VIEW FROM THE EDGE DONCASTER CONVERSATION CLUB 2 NEWSLETTER | Issue 58 stss Revisiting Moria women and children via their Detention Centre and the adjoining network of contacts in Lesvos and ‘Tent City’ – enjoying games, music, Detention Centre, assists refugee women by providing craft and painting paper, fabric as food and some of their basic needs. well as singing and making music Lesvos – Part 2 together. By Lilian Hollidge [DCC Recognising the recent history of just Volunteer] some of the vulnerable refugees in ‘Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Lesvos, dissatisfied with the media support refugees with medical needs support of just one specific when needed (and also made a Detention Centre and anxious to welcome cup of tea to be shared learn whether there were any with ourselves and others at the end positive changes to their situations, I of the afternoon) in the high returned to Moria for just two temperatures of the early summer. weeks. I hoped to carry on as Sultana Foundation had begun to ‘Refugee with Refugee’ volunteers support vulnerable women and were constructing an Adventure children, not to make massive steps Playground – with climbing walls, of change but to continue to support swings, climbing frames, monkey and to assist in developing their bars, slides etc, to provide some Prior to continuing my personal projects. The following steps were distractions and entertainment for journey into the infamous MORIA not taken lightly nor in humour, my the children, amongst the bright, Detention Centre, I feel I need to approach in no way lessens colourful stones interspersed explain about the organisation that vulnerable women and children’s amongst the dry soil, rocks, withering welcomed me into their long term plight. grasses and olive trees. mission – the Sultana Foundation, who focus on the most vulnerable Passing alongside Moria Centre daily, I spent some mornings exploring the refugees who are women and with its broken fencing, I saw mobile narrow, steep streets of Mytilini children. Sultana were the first to toilets, large outside sinks and harbour town. Sometimes knowing establish a Women Only safe space running tap water, used for washing exactly where I was going and other outside the Moria Refugee Camp in clothes, for personal hygiene and for times walking for what seemed miles Lesvos in October 2017. filling water containers for cooking, admiring the beautiful architecture drinking and washing utensils. and cafes as well as spotting some Thousands of refugees continue to Visibly there seemed to be places of worship – a beautiful arrive in Greece every month. The something missing though. It took a Domed Cathedral; an unused mainstream media no longer cover while to register – the enormous Mosque and a small Church which these events, even when dozens multi-bunk “Marquee” that made me smile! Thousands of miles drown crossing the Aegean Sea from previously housed African refugees of travel and I had stumbled across Turkey to Greece. Many of these had disappeared. Replacing it there Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic refugees arrive after suffering years were smaller 2 family tents provided Church- I’d found home again! of war and strife in Syria and other by UNHCR charity. These were sited countries, looking for safety and closer to the front of the entrance Back to reality, I helped with setting sanctuary. area. up records of the ever-increasing refugee Volunteers, the bakers and On arrival, a large majority of these There were other volunteer agencies the quantities of breads baked and refugees, including vulnerable servicing the many communities in distributed… to ensure that the women and children are placed in and around Moria, trying to make a provision would be carried on if over-crowded, insanitary camps, and difference for the refugees, new and Azam was not able to be there fed sub-standard food lacking long term, for example the ‘START’ physically. nutrition, and given inadequate organisation who would entertain shelter. Sultana Foundation focuses and play with the many children on I reflect now on occasions of my on identifying the most vulnerable an open area at the entrance to the sitting / thinking about the refugees A VIEW FROM THE EDGE DONCASTER CONVERSATION CLUB 3 NEWSLETTER | Issue 58 stss as I experienced feelings of The photo shows Ghalia ‘numbness’; of holding myself at a The work of Re-Define (Mediator, University of York), distance; how easy it would be to with volunteers from DCC. walk away and forget everything I By Carol Taylor They would like to thank Janice had seen and heard; to the extremes and her team for making them of wanting to SHOUT about the feel welcome and supporting injustice from the rooftops! At the research where they can in other times I had a strong sense of an often emotive and busy pride for R and F and other refugees environment. for the shelters they had made for families RE-DEFINE is a World Health Asylum Statistics Organisation research study. It Periodically a sense of anger at the is funded to test how effective The immigration statistics for the MORIA Management who, even and useful the SelfHelp+ (SH+) second quarter of 2019 have been though they had the Tarpaulins is for Arabic speaking released. Here are some of the donated, still required the refugees Refugees and Asylum seekers headlines regarding asylum figures. to purchase these out of their €190 a from various countries who month for food and clothing and experience some emotional There were 32,693 asylum sanitary goods. distress. The SH+ is a type of applications in the UK (main mindfulness intervention based applicants only) in the year ending Hearing of a sense of despair and on acceptance and June 2019, 21% more than the relief when a family experienced commitment therapy (ACT) previous year but below the level their baby dying from Hypothermia which is a form of cognitive seen in the year ending June 2016. lying alongside them in their ‘Tent’ in behavioural therapy. The aim the freezing Winter … and in contrast of the study is to test how There were 3,496 applications from to the sense of ‘hope’ as they receive effective this intervention is. unaccompanied minors, 39% more a date for their interview to decide if than the previous year. These they are able to stay and move The University of York are a accounted for 11% of total asylum through the process to safety and site for this research and you applications in the latest year. security or to return to wherever may have seen Carol and her they came. “Hope in their colleagues recruiting at the There were 20,366 initial decisions wilderness?” Conversation Club. With the made in the last year, of which 44% support of the Club they have (9,052) were grants of asylum, had 17 referrals and humanitarian protection or successfully recruited eight alternative forms of leave; compared participants. with 28% in the previous year. There were 31,884 cases pending initial decision at the end of June 2019. 53% (16,970) were more than 6 months old, the largest backlog recorded in asylum statistics. There were 10,016 appeal decisions in the last year, 42% of which were allowed (4,200). At the end of June 2019, 45,203 asylum seekers in the UK were in receipt of Section 95, up 6% from the same time the previous year. A VIEW FROM THE EDGE DONCASTER CONVERSATION CLUB 4 NEWSLETTER | Issue 58 stss In the year ending June 2019, 5,691 start the session is quite interesting people to locate their family people were provided protection when they say “Police in the UK are members who went missing in their under resettlement schemes (a friendly and can be approached any survival journey.

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